2Corinthians 5:17-18 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed. Behold! all things are made new. But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ has reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him)."
Jesus says in John 16:24-27 (Amplified), "Up to this time you have not asked a single thing in My Name (as presenting all that I AM); but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight)may be full and complete. I have told you these things in parables (veiled language, allegories, dark sayings); the house is now coming when I shall no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but I shall tell you about the Father in plain Words and openly (without reserve) At that time you will ask (pray) in My Name; and I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf (for it will be unnecessary) For the Father Himself (tenderly) Loves you because you have Loved Me and have believed that I came out from the Father."
In the Gospels, Jesus speaks about the things which are to come, in Parables. Jesus speaks through Paul in the Epistles, openly declaring what He had before eluded to. 1Corinthians 2:7-8 says, "But rather what we are setting forth is a Wisdom of God once hidden (from the human understanding) and now revealed to us by God (that Wisdom) which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification (to lift us) into the glory of His Presence. None of the rulers of this age or world perceived and recognized and understood this, for if they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory."
Jesus' crucifixion was satan's complete downfall. If Jesus had made God's plan for mankind known to the people or His disciples, then satan would never have planned His death, according to the above scriptures. Many of the things in the Gospel, were only for the old covenant people. Many still don't understand that the four Gospels are Old Testament books. The new covenant didn't begin, until Jesus' resurrection , His ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The people Jesus spoke to in His earthly ministry, were still in spiritual death, dead in trespass and sin and shut off from the Life of God, that we now share in Christ Jesus.
Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amplified), "I came that we might have Life," which must have sounded "strange," to the people who were there and thought they were "already alive." They had no insight into the salvation, that is now available to "whosoever will believe." The things Jesus eluded to in parables, are now our inheritance through Him.
The Jews and those under the Law, believed it was heresy when Jesus prayed "The Lord's Prayer," and said, "Our Father." This was an insight into the new birth and the new creation family of God. Paul writes about his actually being taken into the Presence of Jesus in the Heavenlies in 2Corinthians 12:1-4. Paul says that this revelation was for the new creation and that no man had heard or knew these things, until he preached them.
In Galatians 1:11-12 (Amplified) Paul says, "For I want you to know brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known to me is not man's gospel (a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standards) For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but (it came to me) through a (direct) revelation (given) by Jesus Christ (the Messiah)." We struggle today, to distinguish between what Jesus taught before His death and resurrection and what Jesus told Paul and what Paul preached, after Jesus' resurrection. When reading Romans 8:1-2, we still still talk about "being in the flesh" or "being in the Spirit." as though it implies two separate persons.
We fail to understand that God sees our earthly body, as already dead in crucifixion with Christ and He sees our spirit alive to Him, by the resurrection of Christ. God only sees one person, not two. The natural body has become only a House for the Holy Spirit and our new creation spirit to live in, while we're here on earth. We continue walking in many of the old habits and customs of the world's training we were raised in, before receiving our Life in Jesus. These aren't "sins" of our spirit being, nor are they the flesh body (like some would say), but they're the results of an unrenewed mind or the soul that habitually walks after what it's been trained to know and do. The flesh (body) doesn't do "just what it wants to do," without permission. Our spirit wants to walk with God, while our soul (carnal nature) wants to remain in the environment which it has been trained. The body can only obey the stronger of those two things.
Some have never considered the Truth about renewing our minds, by the Word of God. The body can only do, what the mind tells it to do. When we learn to think like the Spirit of God, then our body will walk in-line with the Word. If we continue reading, thinking, seeing, and talking like we did before being born-again, then the body will follow the same impulses and habits it did before. Psalms 23:3 (KJV) tells us, "He, the Shepherd, will restore your soul." He will make your mind, intellect, emotions, will, to obey the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. This will put an end to our being "double-minded," like James 1:5-8 talks about.
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